Information may be recorded in certain circumstances by manually writing on paper or other surfaces, using ink pens, pencils, chalk, or other media. Various combinations of the writing substance and the surface receiving the writing produce different degrees of permanence, and other qualities.
The applications in which information is written onto paper or another surface are varied. For example, consumers scribble shopping lists; coaches write plays; office workers note-take in meetings and students note-take in class; factory workers record production information; civilians and military personnel write-up charts and reports, etc.
The writing implements for committing information onto paper and other surfaces are varied. Lead pencils are sometimes used, and are suitable for some applications, but in many situations ink is used. Numerous inks are commercially available.
In addition to having many different conventional writing tools from which to select, many different papers and other surfaces are available from which to select, one of which is paper. Papermaking is an ancient technology, and substantial arrays of writing papers have been developed, in numerous forms. Papers of various colors, thickness, appearance, durability and size are sold. Paper is sold in single sheets, in punched forms suitable for inserting in notebooks, in glue-bound tablets, in books, in spiral-bound notebooks. Whichever paper is selected, recording information on paper is not without risk or disadvantage. For example, under certain conditions, ink on paper becomes illegible, or at least unsightly, distorted, or irregular, such as when the paper comes in accidental contact with food, beverages and various other liquids and solids. Also, paper is relatively destructible, and even in normal use for some applications may tear. Individual sheets of paper may be difficult to control, keep track of, or contain. Handled paper may look worn, dog-eared, and unprofessional.
Methods have developed, in certain applications, for writing onto non-paper surfaces, such as chalkboards, whiteboards and certain plastic sheets. The appearance and quality of the image, difficulty of use, permanence/removability, size and inconvenience of use, and the like for the conventional non-paper systems have tended to limit their use to certain particular applications.
In many applications, paper has remained the predominant writing surface. For example, the U.S. military is one context in which much or all of certain manual information recording occurs onto paper. A non-exhaustive list of examples in which military personnel record information onto paper, most often (and many applications, only) in handwritten form, includes: patrol coordination, patrol order, attack order, defense order, order annex, warning order, route card, fire plan sketch, range card, call for fire, close air support, close in fire support, communications and reporting, general information, guidelines for operation, reconnaissance sketch/report. However, in military and security applications, ink writing on paper may encounter adverse conditions.
Some writing surfaces have been developed as alternatives to paper, including certain relatively chunky products that are disadvantageously thick, an example being PolyDura™, manufactured by J. L. Darling Corp. Also there may be mentioned Write-in-the-rain™ paper sold by J. L. Darling Corp (Washington), which is a paper that does not degrade in water. The Write-in-the-rain™ paper is a throw-away, one-time-use product, which tends to wick, and, once wetted and allowed to dry, will not return to its original manufactured state.